The valley song athol fugard biography

A one-act play set in the Karoo region of South Africa in the postapartheid era; first produced in Johannesburg, South Africa , in ; published in English in Born in , Athol Fugard grew up to become the most renowned playwright of South Africa. His career spans four decades of the turbulent history of that racially divided country, during which his plays have made powerful pleas for racial equality and harmony in a land torn by intolerance, resentment, and discrimination.

Born in the Karoo, the isolated, semidesert farmland in which Valley Song is set, Fugard was raised in Port Elizabeth. Despite brief stints in larger cities, and despite worldwide fame, Port Elizabeth has remained his home.

Athol fugard full name

His adult years have seen the dismantling of the apartheid policy of racial segregation in South Africa. Fugard has since continued to comment on a political scene that, though more equal, is not much less volatile. Against the backdrop of political change. Nevertheless, the play cannot be properly understood without some background in the decades-long system of racial oppression that ended only a few years prior to the period in which Valley Song is set.

Like almost every African country, South Africa is ethnically diverse; what sets South Africa apart are how different its major ethnic groups are. Later arrivals to the area, also of African origin, include various Bantu-speaking peoples, such as the Zulu, who are taller and darker-skinned than the San or the Khoi.